High Turnover of ALMO bosses

Reporter: David Bartlett (RoFTRA)
Date online: 28/04/2008

The special review of ALMOs included in Inside Housing has a section asking the question: Why do so many ALMOs fail to hold on to their Chief Executives?

The article goes on to state that last year alone a quarter of the 69 Arms Length Management Organisations (ALMOs) replaced their Chief Executive and that established ALMOs in rounds one to five of the programme saw bosses come and go at the rate of one a month.

It goes on to look at the reasons for the high turnover in which the relationship between the ALMO and its local council figures strongly. Having identified the difficulties experienced by those recruited as ALMO Chief Executives without previous experience of council life, it then states: even ALMO chiefs accustomed to Town Hall politics may feel the need to make a timely exit if the relationship between the council and their organisation is uneasy.

Which, although RBH isn't mentioned, comes closest to the circumstances that led to the departure of its Managing Director Paul Neate in April last year.

RBH is unique among those whose Chief Officer has departed in that, as the anniversary of his going passes on Wednesday, there is still no sign of a replacement.

It surely says something about the powers of its Board that two months will have passed since the delivery of the Audit Commission's report on the failure to appoint before the Board even meets to discuss what to do next about filling the gap.